Fructus Forsythiae is dried fruits of Forsythia suspensa (Thunb.) Vahl (Oleaceae), which is mainly grown in Henan, Shanxi, Shanxi, Shandong provinces and other places in China, as well as Hubei, Hebei, Sichuan and Gansu provinces. Forsythiae is commonly used for treating diseases of acute wind-heat common cold, carbuncle and sore, tuberculous lymphadenitis, urinary tract infection, etc. A main ingredient of Fructus forsythia (forsythia) is phillyrin with antiviral, antibacterial, antioxidant, free radicals removing, antitumor and other pharmacologic effects. At present, numerous researches on extraction of phillyrin from natural forsythia have been reported, medicinal plant resources become increasingly scarce, and effective ingredient content is relatively low, thus chemical synthesis of phillyrin can greatly reduce cost, improve yield and play a role in protection of plant resources.

Chemical synthesis of phillyrin has been researched, in 2014, Fan Hongyu et al. utilized 1-Bromo-tetra-o-acetyl-alpha-D-glucose and phillygenin for carrying out glycosylation catalyzed by a phase transfer catalyst and base and utilized sodium methoxide for deprotection to generate phillyrin [Fan Hongyu, Fu Li, Synthesis and Structure Characterization of Phillyrin, Liaoning Chemical Industry, 2014, 43, 241-243], however, synthesis yield of the method is relatively low, penta-acetyl-beta-D-glucose and 33% hydrobromic acid of acetic acid solution are required to be brominated to obtain 1-Bromo-tetra-o-acetyl-alpha-D-glucose, and hydrobromic acid does not facilitate operation for its corrosion.